2025 NFL Schedule Release: Immediate Takeaways

Nothing is ever final in the NFL. There will be changes and transactions right up until the start of the regular season and beyond. But Wednesday night brought us the last big piece of information we were waiting on to prepare for the 2025 season: The schedule.

Sure, we knew every team’s slate of opponents for 2025 the minute the 2024 season ended. But the slow rollout gave us the order, the bye weeks, the notable spotlight games and everything else a football fan needs to get ready for the season.

So with that in mind, let’s take a look at the immediate takeaways from Wednesday night’s schedule release. We’ll check in later this week with some early- and late-season winners and losers, bye week analysis and late-season stacks, but these are the immediate takeaways from the schedule release.

2025 NFL Schedule Release: Immediate Takeaways

Going to Be Seeing a Lot of Commanders

Fresh off an out-of-nowhere run to the NFC Conference Championship Game, the NFL will be showing fans a lot of Washington football in standalone windows the 2025 season. The Commanders have six prime-time games in 2025 (at least; Week 18 could be another), plus a Madrid game and a Christmas game. That’s nearly half of their schedule in spotlight windows. If Jayden Daniels builds on his Offensive Rookie of the Year season, he’ll do it in front of a lot of eyeballs. And if there’s a sophomore slump, there’ll be nowhere to hide.

The Giants Better Get Good Fast

We knew the Giants would face a tough slate of games in 2025, no matter the order. After all, they have six NFC East games, and that means six games against the defending Super Bowl champion Eagles, the rising Commanders and the always-a-threat Cowboys, plus four games against a good AFC West. Unfortunately for New York (and Russell Wilson and Brian Daboll?), there’s no easing into the schedule. The Giants face the Commanders, Cowboys, Chiefs, Chargers and Eagles within the first six weeks of the season. I’m not predicting a Jaxson Dart appearance by Week 7 … but I’m not ruling it out, either.

49ers Could Bounce Back in a Big Way

The 49ers were one of the most injured teams in the NFL last year, losing Brandon Aiyuk, Christian McCaffrey and several other key players for big chunks of the year. That led them to a 6-11 record and last place in the NFC West despite many predicting them for a Super Bowl run. The silver lining of that (very) dark cloud is that it offers the potential for good things for the 49ers in 2025. In addition to playing against the NFC South and AFC South, the 49ers — by virtue of playing a last-place schedule — get to face the Bears, Giants and Browns in 2025. The NFC West could still be a gauntlet, but the schedule broke well for San Francisco.

Christmas Is Now an NFL Day

We knew the league would never turn back once it opened the Pandora’s Box of taking over Christmas Day action last year. That the holiday falls on a Thursday this year is just icing on the cake for the league. We’ll get three Christmas Day games this year (Dallas @ Washington, Detroit @ Minnesota, Denver @ Kansas City). The big question — How will the league handle it when Christmas falls on a Tuesday or a Wednesday? Last year, a Wednesday Christmas led to the league scrambling teams to some Saturday games ahead of time to wedge it in, but with three such games every year, it can get squirrelly. Still, it’s not going anywhere. This train only goes one way.

Get Ready for Some Tom Brady Overload

Sure, Brady is just a partial owner of the Raiders, but if you think we aren’t going to be absolutely inundated with narratives when Las Vegas travels to New England for a Week 1 matchup, you haven’t paid attention to this league. The “Brady back to Foxboro” storylines are going to be in overdrive that week. Buckle up.

The NFL Still Hates Fantasy Players

OK, that’s strong. But Week 14 byes stink. And losing Malik Nabers, Christian McCaffrey, Drake Maye and Tetairoa McMillan (and their teams) to a bye in the last week of the fantasy regular season (or, for the particularly bold out there, fantasy playoffs) is just mean. Why you gotta do us like that, guys.

Who Will Be the Week 18 Prime Time Game?

Time for some serious guesswork. But I’ve always said this should be something you can bet on in sportsbooks. Think of the odds shifts if you put money down on, say, Ravens-Steelers to get the season’s final game in Week 4, and then you get through Week 14 and they’re both 10-3. It’s exciting. Someone get that action going.

Here are who I see as the most likely games to cap off the NFL regular season:

Basically No Chance

New Orleans @ Atlanta
Cleveland @ Cincinnati
Kansas City @ Las Vegas
Dallas @ NY Giants
Carolina @ Tampa Bay
Tennessee @ Jacksonville

Minimal Chance

NY Jets @ Buffalo
Miami @ New England
Arizona @ LA Rams
Seattle @ San Francisco
Indianapolis @ Houston

Reasonable Chance

Detroit @ Chicago
LA Chargers @ Denver

Top Contenders

Green Bay @ Minnesota
Washington @ Philadelphia
Baltimore @ Pittsburgh